Raaz

After you have seen endless popsicle movies with one Clown who self proclaims himself as the greatet actor and the imbeciles of the media who praises him to the hilt that is decadance of an Industry and you begin to wonder the state of the Industry,then comes along movies that puts your faith back in the Hindi movies and Raaz is one of them. Consummate actors like Aushotosh Rana,The haunting melody of the music that was the staple of the yester years,the location (Ooty or Ootacamund, a hill station the Indian Switzerland),the Ace direction by one of the top directors, good looking actors,the thrill of watching a movie is back. Raaz is one of the best romantic thriller after "Bees Sal Baad" a classic of the sixties.

Vikram Bhatt's Raaz (2002) is one of Bollywood's most iconic horror films, blending supernatural elements with a gripping love story. Inspired by What Lies Beneath (2000), Raaz delivers an eerie atmosphere, suspenseful storytelling, and a hauntingly beautiful soundtrack that still lingers in the minds of fans.

Plot & Suspense The story follows Sanjana (Bipasha Basu) and Aditya (Dino Morea), a troubled married couple who decide to rekindle their relationship by vacationing in Ooty. However, their peaceful retreat turns into a nightmare as Sanjana begins experiencing paranormal occurrences. With the help of a professor (Ashutosh Rana), she uncovers a dark secret about her husband's past, leading to a thrilling climax.

Performances Bipasha Basu steals the show with her emotionally charged performance, marking her breakthrough in Bollywood. She effectively portrays a woman torn between love and fear. Dino Morea does a decent job, but it's Ashutosh Rana who adds depth to the story with his intense presence as a paranormal expert. Malini Sharma, as the vengeful spirit, delivers a chilling performance.

Man, I really love those songs in Bollywood-films. But here, they don't work. "Raaz" is a Mystery-Thriller à la "What Lies Beneath" and I just didn't dig it that they would sing in between. But ... the song sequences take place in Switzerland so at least my local pride got soothed :)

The story delivers the goods. It's suspenseful, well told, even better photographed and OK acted. The two main stars make a splendid couple. Dino Morea has a

physique to die for and Bipasha Basu is beauty impersonated. Very nice to look at indeed. I was more annoyed by the Professor (Ashutosh Rana) however. In the

beginning, there is a scene where he rages against doctors completely unprovoked. His ethno-medeicine talks was not only a bore, it was also wrong in content. And why did he have to scream all the time?

But fortunately, he's not the main focus. One final thing: I'd have loved some juicy sex scenes. Here are two amazingly beautiful actors and they have a lot of love scenes together. But they don't even kiss. They just hold each other ... and talk. Or sing. Booooring. Why not spicing it up with some flesh? I know, I know, it's not some cheap Hollywood skin-pic, but then why tease at all?

Overall, a nice movie with minor flaws. But for the actors and the camera work alone, it's worth a look.

Rating 7/10

Asian filmmakers keep surprising us these past years. India does it this time with horror as part of a musical film. In the spirit of Bollywood. But I must say, I have never been a horrorfan. And so I actually was not sure if I should watch this movie. No regrets. The story is good, although the full explanation of what happened in the past is a bit long. But it is Bollywood, and they don't send you home after 74 or 90 minutes watching in full speed. They give you value for your money. Even the make up is well done, compare to other movies in it's genre, and the music is at the right time, the right place and in the right mood. Bollywood has done well with this movie, but I still prefer the romantic stuff...

Raaz is a very average film in terms of film-making. It's a very funny mixture of thriller and romance. While films like Bhoot use music which contributes to the film's genre perfectly, the songs in Raaz are very melodious and romantic, which makes them odd and unsuitable for a thriller like Raaz. Anyway, if the film had been made as a complete thriller, it would probably have not succeeded commercially as expected by the producers. Generally, thrillers and horror films often display magical realism to make it more convincing and scaring (again, Bhoot), and the acting is natural for the same purpose, but this film has far too many unrealistic sequences, over-the-top dialogues and exaggerated acting (except for Bipasha) even in very ordinary and simple scenes which are not part of the suspense. This does not mean though the effect was damaged completely, because you wouldn't really expect to see a realistic film with such a story. Raaz therefore does work as a thriller most of the time.

Dino Morea does not make a great impact. This is not really a performance-driven role, though he is restrained throughout and looks suitable for the role. The film has one main highlight for me, and it's Bipasha Basu who carries the film on her own shoulders. Although these were still the days when she had not yet become a national sex symbol, this girl had extremely expressive eyes and graceful mannerisms. She did not perform brilliantly, nor did she look as stunningly beautiful as she looks today, but she did perform well and looked attractive and beautiful. And the dubbing artist... she did a fabulous job for her. And speaking of dubbing, yes, the film secretly used professional dubbing for several actors, including the main lead, which is good because from what I know the starring actors were yet to work on their voices and diction at that point of time. And though it does make wonders, as the performances seem to be much more convincing, the dubbing at several points faces foul-ups. Several scenes had a noticeable lack of compatibility between the voice over and the facial expressions, which was quite annoying. Anyway, Raaz may not be a great film, but it is a decent entertainer, and as a time-pass flick it does the required. It may have had better results had it been directed by someone like Ram Gopal Varma, but it should be worthy of a one-time watch.